Tennis: Barnett makes point to selectors

ABERDEEN’S Jason Barnett reached the semi-finals of both the singles and doubles at the ITF World Seniors Championships in California last week, proving a point to the Great Britain selectors who omitted him from the team event a week earlier.

Barnett, 36, competes in the over-35 category on the Seniors tour, and was seeded No 5 for the singles tournament in La Jolla.

He made his way through four rounds before going down to Benjamin Budziak, of Poland, in the last four. In the doubles, the Scot and English partner Neil Goldsby were seeded second, but lost their semi-final to the Finnish pair of Tapio Nerminen and Ilkke Raikonen.

Barnett was ranked No 9 in the world going into the championships, and is set to rise to No 4 as a result of reaching the last four. His omission from the GB team baffled him and his support team as he is ranked well above the five English competitors who were selected.

Now living in Kent, he will be back in Scotland this week to compete in the Scottish Seniors Open Championships in Glasgow, where he is top seed and defending champion. The tournament takes place at venues throughout Glasgow from Thursday, with the finals being held at Scotstoun on Sunday.